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Ben's Week In Review: July 17

Summer isn't my favorite time of year but the weather has been pretty decent. :)

Square Enix "looking at HD technology tests?"

I don't think we focused on this enough: after Square Enix boss Tetsuya Nomura teased Kingdom Hearts III, he mentioned something about how the company was "looking into high-definition technology tests." The source informs us that he may not have been referring specifically to KH; in fact, it could've been a general statement. A lot of major publishers have dabbled in HD remakes and that includes Japanese game makers; we're all anticipating that awesome Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, right? And while it might be a lot more work to deliver a Final Fantasy HD Collection, it's not impossible.

And it's definitely not impossible to touch up a classic PS1 or PS2 FF title and re-release it in high-def. We always talk about FFVII but at this rate, I'd be happy with any of the old Squaresoft classics getting new life in HD. Just pick one. Chrono Cross. Vagrant Story. Whatever. Just do it.

Why do we know nothing about GTAV?

One would think we'd have heard more about Grand Theft Auto V by this time. Rumors are pointing towards an early 2012 launch and if that's accurate, we really should've seen a few initial details by now. By all rights, it should've been at E3. Maybe the game is further off than anticipated but if it isn't, I have to question this silence on the part of Rockstar. We're talking about a hard-hitting blockbuster that is, without a doubt, the last franchise that can currently challenge Call of Duty for the ultimate sales crown. We've got a few hazy pieces of info; maybe GTAV will be set out west in the Los Angeles area, for instance, but this is a huge deal! That's all we know? And we don't really even know that.

I think it's pretty sad when we're clinging to pre-order receipts for GTAV news, especially when the game is supposedly set to release in approximately 8 months or less. It just makes little sense.

Personal gaming update

I'm at the end of inFamous 2 and I expect to see Catherine this week. I've been a little surprised at the critical reception so far; IGN gave it a 9, which I really didn't expect. I keep hoping for something really special but as I'm not an anime fan, I have my doubts... Still, I love refreshing games and if this doesn't qualify as refreshing, nothing does. I'll be very interested to see how Deus Ex: Human Revolution comes out, too, but that's five weeks away.

As for future news, we plan to upload some PSXE Show material to our YouTube Channel soon. So if you don't get into PlayStation Home to watch 'em, you can see them there. Also, we'll look to set up some interviews for the fall, and we're wondering what developers you'd like to see on PSXE, and what kinds of questions you'd like to see answered. For the record, we're looking to get some Q&As done for games like White Knight Chronicles 2, Resistance 3, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution. If you have other ideas, let us know. :)

Comments (64 posts)

I bet you a million bucks the HD testing is for the Kingdom Hearts series. That would be infinitely easier to make than the Final Fantasy games. Thought I'd prefer FF as KH is an evil hybrid of something great and something stupid.

Earlier I theorized that GTAV was being kept under wraps so tightly because perhaps they are utilizing Motionscan technology in order to further the ultra realistic imperative they seem to have taken.

Ben, have you played the Catherine demo? It really is great and something fresh for a change. It just oozes thoughtfulness and quality. I put up my impressions here:

http://www.velocitygamer.com/pt/Catherine-Demo-Hands-On/blog.htm

I'm playing Shadows of the Damned, which is kinda neat but clearly a low budget rush job. I also started a game in Saints Row 2, which just feels a lot more like the GTA I know and love. It's kind of ugly in this day and age but I can get past that for the sandbox mayhem that GTA no longer wishes to provide.Last edited by WorldEndsWithMe on 7/16/2011 9:24:54 PM

Nice show @Home community theater. No luck meeting up you guys. BikerSaint and I tried a lot of times for several minutes but we kept arriving to the same instance of theater.

On topic, pfff yeah sure, HD tests from SquareEnix, I don't even want to start thinking, or choosing one. The chances are they go against all logic again. I really really want to be wrong this time, oh wait... I started again, pshh :(

Probably... I'd like to know what Nomura was on about when he said that they were thinking about putting FFXI on Vita. Seriously, why not go with XIV, at least that way they could go with the Vita/3 interconnectivity.

I can't wait to see S-E starting to update their old PS2 classics, if it even does happen. KH would be cool with a new game coming in the series, and FF is always desired. But what about Dragon Quest. I kind of wish that they would expand and create more internal studios, hire a bunch new workers and start putting out a wider variety of RPGs, and games though. I mean, there are so many titles in their creation library that people would love to go back to. And doing that would take some pressure off of Nomura, who's supposed to be doing Versus, KH3D, KH3, and continuing Dissidia. Oh... and also stop making DS games! They're a waste of internal talent!

I'll want to play GTA: Next, but I'm starting to lose interest as a result of the constant blind hype. I'll start to get interested when Rockstar announces it, or at least officially teases it. Seriously though, are they on a media blackout or something. That's one dev/publisher suite that doesn't say anything.

Personal Update:
Getting through Sense and Sensibility, but I preferred Emma to it. Might get it finished this week, but I doubt it.
Finished my evil playthrough of inFamous 2, and have now put it aside. That means, of course, that my PSXE user review is live. Enjoy. I've now gone back to finish off Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction, then I'll go through with the entirety of the Future arc. God, I love it. It's just so much fun, and I like how the humour is double layered.

You should see if you can set up an interview with Sanzaru to find out just how similar their Sly will be to the original trilogy. Rockstar, definitely, to find out anything about their unreleased titles. Though I would love to see anything about Deus Ex as well. For some reason, I don't think it's going to be as good as I used to think it was going to be, but I hope that I'm wrong.
Peace.

the reply function does work with the ps3 browser on this site. i just used it now. just hit the reply button and go down to the box and type your comment. it's really not that difficult.Last edited by Excelsior1 on 7/17/2011 4:51:40 AM

As much as I'd like to see a sort of pseudo HD revitalization of some PSX Squaresoft games, it just sort of seems unlikely to me because of how non-existent PSX HD games have been this gen. That is, I think there's a reason why we haven't really seen any PSX games re-done in HD. Is there an official reason I MGS is being left out of the MGS Anniversary edition? I suspect it's because they're just so antiquated it would require a lot more work to get them looking HD without them still looking like garbage. But I dunno. It just would seem that way.

I don't do GTA so nothing there for me to see. I also don't have an interest in Catherine. I mean, I'm all for creativity in the gaming market, but I just won't bow down certain standards or thematic interests for the sake of innovation alone. 'nuff said on that matter.

PGU: I finished up on Vanquish. It's great stuff. **Maybe a Spoiler** I think it's the first game I played where I couldn't tell right away if the game had ended. It was like, "Okay, did it. That's it.. wait, maybe not. Oh, yeah it's ove... MAYBE NOT... No, no, yeah, it's over." Then the credits pop up... "CRAP it's NOT!" =p

Anyhoo, outside of that, been doing lots of Fallout 3...I so love that game. It's so dang awesome. I've also been doing some Madden 2010 and Ms. Splosion Man. Good stuff.

Vanquish rocks. I'm playing through the seoond 'Act' right now on a casual play through to get the feel of it, and I'm loving it, although some of the battles are tough for a 'casual' mode. LOL! I might have to step up my game.

interesting point about psx remakes. we have not even seen that many ps2 remakes yet to be honest even though i know more are on their way. regarding a mgs remake. why can't they uses the assets from the gamecube remake? that game was essentially brought up to mgs2 standards.

i absolutely loved fallout 3 as well. the game really sucks you in once you start roaming the atomic wasteland. compelling story, great characters, and a really dynamic world. there is just so much to do in the game. it just has a lot of charm and personality.

for some reason new vegas did not grab me in the same way. i felt some of fallout 3's magic was lost. i just didn't care for the story as much, but like wolrd said it's almost as good.Last edited by Excelsior1 on 7/17/2011 5:16:38 AM

Yeah, Vanquish will get at least a second play through by me. I'll probably even attempt it on hard. The more I played it the more I mastered the controls and learned how to optimize weapon types under conditions.

Visually it can be really nice. The blurry offset look bugs me though. I suspect it's done to help blend the particle effects and light trails.. they're a little lower res.

EDIT:: Oh and I saw New Vegas used for $15 at Blockbuster. I didn't snag it. I figured I'd first need to get to all the other Fallout3 expansion packs before getting there. And even then, there's sooo many games asking for my time, it's hard to tell if I'll want to play it by then.And yeah, Bethseda does a knock out job at drawing you into their worlds. It can be so absorbing. I'm also not really racing to finish the game, I do any of the side quests as they come and I just like taking it all in. Though, I am sort of stuck on one. Abraham Washington sent me on a quest to get the Declaration of Independence, I decided to go get the forgery ink with the mercenary chick but I can't seem to find my way to that really southern spot... Is it Arlington Library? The subway stuff kind of confuses me, even when looking at the transit maps. The Hubris Comics underground tunnels take me north not south. Anyway, I'm contemplating just going back and blasting that stupid droid and steal the document... I don't have enough Speech points to convince him that I'm Thomas Jefferson.Anyway, Good Stuff!

the ink is in ne section of the arlington library if i remember right. the subways will take you there. it is very easy to get lost down there but with deligent exploring you will be able to reach it.Last edited by Excelsior1 on 7/17/2011 11:22:47 AM

Qubex,I agree, it is a very good looking game and really doesn't get the positive spin it should, it has an accomplished engine, and although I understand what Temjin is referring to with the blurry offset, the engine runs well, and doesn't stutter. I haven't noticed dropped frames or any other ugly effect of trying to keep up. All I've seen are great visuals and sometimes insane action.

I really hope SE makes an HD Collection of KH and FF from PS2 because I haven't gotten around to KH2, FFXII or X-2 yet, and honestly I don't even remember X all that well(will have to replay it sometime).

With Rockstar it kind of seems like their MO not to give any information until they're very close to release. It was that way with both RDR and LA Noire. I bet we'll start to hear a lot about GTAV six to eight months before it comes out.

What I've been playing is... FFIX!!! A really great game. I'm now about 50+ hours into it. I think I'm nearing the end so I'm trying to decide which PS1 RPG to play next. Yay! On PS3 just playing lots of different things I've started but never finished so that I do finally finish them. Blah. Now to drink and dance.. Yay! XDLast edited by Claire C on 7/16/2011 10:26:52 PM

when rockstar wants us to know about GTAV we'll know. & it'll blow us away.PGU all this GTA talk lately has made me hungry for some GTA so started a new game of san andreas today.Last edited by TheCanadianGuy on 7/16/2011 10:38:08 PM

I really want Catherine now. I just finished the demo and the little snippet I just played gave me a rush no game has for a long time. I was really not interested in this until I played the demo and now i cant wait to play it.

I'd like to see an HD collection of KH series. I havnt played them but always wanted to. Really looking forward to some word and a reveal on that. It would be close to the last PS2 games I really wanna play that I missed out on.

Fun turnout in Home tonight, although I wasn't able to stay as long as I'd have preferred. Someone with BikerSaint's PSNID pm me on the forum so I can add him.

I don't really care for an HD remake from SE anymore, I think that they'd just end up making some ponderous thing that spent $50 million on the CGI and $5 million on the game. Maybe if they spent a few more millions actually developing games instead of making CGI shorts for cutscenes we'd have some more games from them on PS3, then again perhaps not.

I'm very surprised byt eh Cathering review score from IGN considering how much they generally don't like Japanese games.

PGU

Got Vanquish and Sengoku Basara this week from Amazon. I really like Vanquish, it's a fun game and lots of action. Very Japanese in a way, and western at the same time. This game is an under appreciated gem of a game. Sengoku Basara is a *very* japanese game, and a lot of fun too. Some would say it's too easy, or that there is not skill because it's all about button mashing. Fine, whatever, it's still fun.

I've been running WKC quests this week, not as many as I want, but it's getting better. I'm still confused about what does, and does not carry into WKC2, but there are things I want to get for my character before going into the second game, so I will keep at it for a while longer.

I went to theater #10 and saw BikerSaint, Godsdream, Dreno, and I think cLoudou (with a slightly different name), but that's all. I left the theater several times and never could find anyone else, so I gave up. I did watch the PSXE video while I was in there.

The weird thing is that the instance where Ben et al. (including myself) were was nearly empty by 6 p.m. PDT. I guess we were in a secondary instance, since you guys kept getting drawn into another one.

I'm right with ya Ben; I love autumn best. I guess it's only right that I was born on the first day of autumn :P

Also, I would absolutely love to chat with some of the LBP developers! They've got such an awesome sense of humour. Maybe it's exclusive 'British humour' I dunno but I'd sure love to have the chace to talk with them!

And really LBP2 is all I have played this week, playing some diamonds in the rough (very rough..first page of cool pages is like a horror show), and updating my level. I think my level is comming along very nicely now, if they're an regulars on LBP2 who'd like to try it it's called 'Calamity Cavemen Chronicles PART2' [BEST...TITTLE...EVAR!!], and I'll try one of your levels. Thankyou :)Last edited by Ludicrous_Liam on 7/17/2011 1:12:32 AM

Also, I just noticed something tonight. For when an commercial comes on for an Xbox exclusive the commercial is short, they show the footage and whatever, the show the game and its case, then the commercial is over. However, on multiplat games, they show the footage, then the cases, then that Xbox screen usually followed by a short ad for an actual Xbox.

considering the rate ffvs13 is developing i guess we can expect the new kh game midway through next generation. the hd remakes of the ps2 ff games seem more pluasible, but i have learned not get my hopes up when it comes to ff remakes becuase of the almost mythical ff7 remake that somehow is brought up before each e3 but never appears. ben even had a source that said something about ff remakes before this year's e3 yet nothing appeared.

infamous 2 is a great game. i noticed it was number 3 on the charts but it only sold 375,000 copies in june. i thought that number would ne a lot higher. sometimes i just can't figure ps3 gamers out, and it's a shame to see sony invest money in all those great exclusives and not get the sales i think they deserve.

speaking of not getting the sales they deserve...the npd results for console sales have me bummed out. 507,000 360's were sold in na in june compared to 240,000 ps3's. what is going on there? i honestly thought this would be the year the ps3 would close the gap in na becuase of its great exclusive lineup compared to hardly anything recently on the 360. that got me thinking about exclusives and their impact. i guess only a handful of exclusives are proven console sellers. i then started to wonder about microsoft's strategy of paying for early dlc. that strategy might have a bigger impact on console sales than i originally thought. who knows? i can imagine cod fans not wanting to wait around for map packs. it's somewhat puzzling, but it leads me to believe sony needs a $199 console in na.

That's an interesting point about the DLC content being more important than exclusives. It sounds logical to me. Once you do love a game you want the dlc asap. But there's very few single games you'd buy an entire console to play. Both LBP2 and Infamous2 are good games but hardly something you'd pay $300 to play...

As for me I've not bought infamous2 yet so I guess I'm one of those ps3 gamers you can't figure out. :)It's just, with games that are pure single player there's no rational *reason* to buy them when they are at the most expensive. The game is the same a few months ahead, at a fragment of the price.So, I wait for the inevitable price drop and enjoy other great titles while waiting. It's not like I'm short on games to play these days...I guess that's why!

- I play multiplayer with friends. So, I want to play the game when they do. And I want to advance with them. Ergo, if they buy at d1 there is a reason for me to do the same. There are never such reasons with single player games.Example: I got fear3 on day1 cause my coop buddy got it at day1. I got fear2 (without coop) less than a year ago, on sale.

- And no matter if you only play with strangers anyways; Many multiplayer games gets less crowded the longer after launch you get, *or* the active crowd is much more experienced than you. Try playing online some of your games that's been out for a while. Many of them will be more or less dead, or the other players are so much more experienced than you and often know each others too, so in many ways it's a different game than on launch.

A single player game, if it changes after launch, it's only for the better with bug fixing patches.

I do that too Beamboom; though somewhat un-counsiously (I think that makes sense lol).Howver the gems (e.g uncharted 3) I just HAVE to play on day 1; either because I just have to, or because I'll be tempted to watch every goddam review until I've practically seen everything. xD

@Liam: Hehe! Oh yes of course, there are some titles I just *have* to get early, I know that urge too well...!For me that means pretty much anything BioWare release. They are bankers. Bioshock Infinite also has d1p written all over it.If Skyrim is *really* good, as in 85%+ good, I'll probably give in then too despite the fantasy setting, simply cause it is a RPG.

Resistance 3 is probably the best example this year of a game that highly likely will be a d1p *only* because of the multi coop play. There's nothing else with that game that tempts me at all - but if the campaign is decent the coop will be great fun.

i honestly cant see $E doing any HD remakes, if anything its more likely we see KH3 then any HD remake.$E puts everything in the too hard basket!

its quite obvious why we have not heard anything about GTAV yet.R* north the guys who always do the GTA games are working on agent, and we have not heard boo about that!not to mention max payne 3, and what ever happened to midnight club, the last one released what 3 years ago?were not going to see GTAV for awhile.MP3 probably wont even release this year, god knows when agent will release, theres no way GTAV will be announced let alone released before those are!especially with agent going MP now, no way they will be putting it on hold after that.theres no freaking way GTAV will be out next year, i cant see R* releasing 2 games in one year then announcing 1 and releasing it within 12 months making it 3 games in 1 year.i mean when was the last time R* released 2 games in one year, then announced and released another game within 12 months making it 3 games in one year?i rest my case!

im trying to finish off splosion man, and i say trying because my lord NEVER have i played a game that infuriates me this much!NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!when it wants to be it can be so much fun, especially in the higher paced sequences and platforming.but there is FAR too many death traps, its just ridiculous!you have to perform a series of 100 impossible jumps, landing on a 2mm base, and time it to the nano second, you have to do that 100 times, and if your out by 0.0000000000000000000001% start all over again!GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!i wish they would tone it down a bit, have a bit more relaxed puzzle solving and platforming and less dodging 100 death traps before you reach the next checkpoint!ive spent more time solving a single level then completing a WHOLE FREAKING CHAPTER!3-7 i think it was took me over a hour to finish, it took me roughly that long to finish the whole first chapter!please, twisted pixel, please can we tone the game down a bit?i like difficult games, but having to make a series of 100 jumps perfect to the micro millimeter before i get a checkpoint is just a little too extreme!id be ok if they were once in a blue moon, once every few levels.but there not, there not even once per level, there several times per freaking level!playing through the first chapter i was like OMFG this game ROCKS im totally getting ms splosion man.now though i dont want to, im worried the sames going to happen and im only going to enjoy half of the game.ok fine to have such a hard game, but come on not several times per freaking level!give us a break already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!at least games like ninja gaiden and that have hard parts then settle down for a bit, but this has no settling down its more, more and more!if this game went to a all you can eat buffet the place would go bankrupt!does not know when to say ENOUGH!

Ben, the You Tubby channel video edition would be cool. At least it will be easier to catch if one can't get to the Home Theater... and I am unlikely to get there until I can find time to get the PS3 fixed.

I've been a fan of the series for a while and I love western games even though COJ: The Cartel puts a modern spin on the western atmosphere. I personally think it looks quite fun even though it doesn't graphically astonish me.

It also includes plenty of refreshing multiplayer game modes, as well as co-op. So, yea, that's why I want it. Plus, there are no reviews for the game yet(which usually turns me away from a game when I see it has low scores), so it might recieve some good scores. I know I will enjoy it.